Jagger (Blood Brothers) by Eve Vaughn Page A

father completely crush her mother’s spirit. Camryn was supposed to go to a movie with friends, but one of them had gotten sick so they decided to reschedule for another time. Camryn had come home earlier than expected.
    Camryn was relieved when no one was in the living room when she arrived home. She wasn’t in the mood to get the third degree. After getting something to drink and fixing a snack, she headed to her room. She had to go past her parent’s bedroom to get to hers.
    “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” Her father’s deafening scream halted Camryn in her tracks.
    “You made a promise to me when we got married that I could eventually go back to school and follow my dreams, too. I broke my back working two jobs to help put you through college and law school, while I was pregnant. I stayed home and raised the children. Every time I mention taking a few college courses, you have some excuse about it not being the right time. What better time than now? Camryn is going away to college next year, Darren is already gone. I’d like to pursue a career, too.”
    “Isn’t selling your baked goods at that little farmer’s market enough for you? Damn, what the hell do you want from me?”
    “ That’s just a little something I started to make a little spending money because you don’t seem to think I deserve any.”
    “Why should you have any? I pay all the damn bills around here while you sit on your fat ass.”
    “I cook, clean, take your suits to the laundry mat, and wash your funky ass drawers, so I do far more around this house than you. You haven’t picked up after yourself in years. I supported you and now, it’s your turn to help me earn my education.”
    “Bitch, you’ve lost your goddamn mind if you think I’d waste my money sending you to college. You’re lucky you managed to marry a driven guy like me, because you’re not smart enough to go to college. Not everyone is cut out for higher education and that means you . It’s time you learned a few home truths. Even if by some miracle you earned a degree, who would hire you? Do you think employers just care about whether you can do the job? Not anymore. This is a beauty obsessed world and employers are looking for people to represent their brand. No one is going to want a fat middle-aged woman. Be thankful with what you have.”
    Camryn couldn’t move if she wanted to. She’d heard her father say cruel things to her mother before but what he’d just said was way below the belt.
    “What? You’re going to cry now?” he continued. “You really are pathetic. I should have listened to my mother when she told me not to marry you.”
    Just then her father came storming out of the room as if he were the injured party instead of the other way around. He halted upon seeing Camryn standing there. She was shaking with rage.
    “Word of advice. Don’t end up like your mother.” That was it. There was no sense of remorse of what he probably knew she’d overheard. Instead, those cold words as he brushed passed her and headed down the stairs.
    With the door still ajar, Camryn had a good view inside the master bedroom suit. Her mother sat on the edge of the bed, her face i n her hands. Her shoulders trembled from her silent sobs.
    Camryn wanted to go in the room and demand her mother go downstairs and tell her father off. Tell him she’d be fine on her own. Leave him. But she knew it would be pointless. Her mother would stay.
    And she’d never ever forgotten that advice from her father. She never wanted to be trapped in a relationship with someone to the point where she felt helpless and had no options. Sure her parents had a miserable marriage but they had to have loved each other at some point. She’d seen the old pictures where her father had stared at her mother lovingly, and her mother had returned that look. They had smiled and laughed and loved once. But where did it all go wrong? When had her father started to feel like his wife